Rivers 2015: Princewill Secures Labour Party Ticket

Popular politician and prince of the Kalabari Kingdom of Rivers State, Tonye Princewill, has secured the governorship ticket of the Labour Party in his state, after decamping from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).

The businessman, with interests in both upstream and downstream oil and gas, disclosed his latest move on Saturday in a release signed personally by him and titled ‘For the sake of our Children’.

According to Princewill, “After extensive consultation on the next steps to follow, I and my team have decided that we no longer have a future in the PDP and that win or lose, going forward, we will now be building our future here in the Labour Party. Just as we refused to return to APC having since left its parent organisation in 2010, our departure from PDP is also final.
“It was not an easy decision to make. I made many friends there and I still have a lot of respect for many men and women within the party, just as I do within the APC, but this is not the reason I entered politics. I came to change the politics, not to maintain the status quo or make friends. I no longer feel I have enough allies or a willing platform to achieve this goal and so I must move on. The struggle continues.

“Some have asked that I maintain a dignified silence and remain within the PDP, or that I should quit politics altogether. But I need to be able to look my children in the eye.

“This is not the Nigeria I can defend, because politics and its conduct are the very foundations on which nations are built. I refuse to give up on Nigeria and so I cannot give up on its politics.

“I would like to thank the Labour Party and its national leadership for giving me a reception fit for a King, and the warm way the state leadership have embraced our arrival. I always complain that our political parties lack ideology and do not have an identity of their own but that position cannot be levelled at Labour.

“With a social democratic ideology, a detailed manifesto and policies that closely mirror mine; I feel most at home here. Politics does not always have to be about just winning. It can be about doing the right thing as well. Finally, unlike previous political decisions that I took with only my political family, this consultation cut across all walks of my life.

“With the help of the BOT Chairman, our able Chairmen at national and state levels and the executive of the party here in Rivers state, I want to use this opportunity to reach out to all aggrieved PDP and APC aspirants who have their people’s interests above their own, potential aspirants who never thought politics would give them a chance and opinion leaders who are left everyday to pick up the pieces of bad governance to come and join the next government of Rivers state.”